Amazon is prepping a 7-inch $199 tablet for a third quarter release, reports Max Wang for Digitimes. Reportedly, this tablet will have better specs than the Fire with a higher quality screen and more than likely a more competent computing platform. The original Fire will then get cut to $150. Then, later in the year or maybe in early 2013, Amazon will release a 10.1-inch model. This comes by way of an “upstream supply chain” source. Digitimes is as sketchy as trade publications get, but logic dictates that there is some truth here.Amazon will release a new Fire model this year. That’s a given as Amazon will likely try to replicate last year’s stellar holiday season l[...]

Motorola Solutions has agreed to acquire British rugged-computer-maker Psion for $200 million in cash, the two companies announced Friday morning.Motorola will pay $1.36 (88 pence) per share, which is a generous premium of 45 percent over Psion’s closing price of 60.5 pence on Thursday.London-based Psion has been making rugged mobile PCs and accessories since 1980, and Motorola will use its expertise to expand its own handhelds and in-vehicle offerings. Mind you, this is a different Motorola from Motorola Mobility, which was acquired by Google, so don’t expect Psion to influence the next Google-Motorola smartphones. Psion has more than 800 employees and generated about $270 mil[...]

Amazon has revised its support pricing for Amazon Web Services, expanding basic free support and lowering the cost of premium support.The company has also added a number of support features, including alerts and the ability to interact with support personnel through chat.Launched in 2006, AWS has been widely used by organizations and users looking to outsource their computer infrastructure by tapping into IaaS (infrastructure as a service) offerings. It provides computing nodes, databases, storage, load balancing and other services, all available on pay-as-you-go pricing plans.The company's services have been used by developers testing new software services, organizations too small to aff[...]

Hearsay Social, a startup backed by New Enterprise Associates and Sequoia Capital, has tried to solve many of the challenges facing large brands that need to manage the social media presence of local branches or franchises. Its latest step: Launching a “Content Exchange” where brands can find and share articles.“Content is the currency of social media,” says VP of Marketing Amy Millard. She adds that the brands who understand this, and who don’t just treat their Facebook Pages as a place to post ads and marketing content, tend to see the best results. However, these brands may not be able to hire an army of people to write new content from scratch for their soci[...]

I have a crazy idea: success isn?t just about hard work. We hear about hard work all the time?it?s what Olympic champions talk about when they get to the top of the podium and it?s what the media credits as the sole force behind of multimillion-dollar Internet entrepreneurs. But there has to be something else in the equation of obtaining unimaginable success. What other traits tipped the odds in favor of the world?s most successful people?What helped propel their careers before they had track records?For the past year I?ve been fortunate enough to interview some of the world?s most successful people to find the answers to these very questions. Below are just a few of the traits I?ve notice[...]